Royal Jelly by Co Theatre Physical

About

Phoebe loves her bees and takes great pride in the hives she keeps in her backyard. She knows how important bees are for food production for humans: “Without bees there would be no chocolate because they pollinate the cocoa plant”. But she never expects to be shrunk and brought into the hive to solve an environmental problem. The Queen Bee summons her and begs her to help save her bees. The bees are troubled by a mysterious spray called Cleanerupicide which is making them sick and causing them to lose their way. Phoebe experiences the life of the hive first hand: the diverse jobs bees perform in the hive, the hierarchy, the breeding of new Queens, the processes of making honey, wax, propolis and of running the bee colony. She is thrust back out into the human world to stop the greedy Mayor who is embarking on a big clean-up of the town, using the poisonous spray, Cleanerupicide. He hopes to sell the spray globally to become rich and famous. Phoebe journeys between the hive and the human world, meeting scientists, bee royalty, comic Cleanerupiciders working for the Mayor, and the deceitful, greedy Mayor himself. She must work out how to make change to stop the Mayor and to save the bees. She learns about ‘kid activists’ who are making changes in their countries. Inspired, she makes a plan to stop the Mayor and looks for ways to help the bees so that humans will survive.

Comic characters, vivid story-telling, bee facts, physical theatre and puppetry combine to tell this story of Phoebe and her quest to save the bees- a funny, informative and visually beautiful show.

Reviews

Just wanting to let you know that Ngunguru School LOVED your show! The storyline was easy to follow and super educational, the girls were fantastic lively/funny actresses and the audience participation aspect was just perfect. All kids and teachers from 5yrs-65yrs were ‘buzzing’ afterwards. Thanks so much, we can’t wait to book your next show.

Vicki Taylor, Ngunguru School, June, 2019

From a teacher’s perspective, the show was very informative with loads of facts about bees cleverly packed into the script.

Your actors did a fantastic job and the children were entertained and absorbed in the show.

It was impressive how your actors played numerous roles and the costumes and sets were cleverly designed to allow this.

Victoria Stevenson, Titirangi Primary School, Auckland

Credits

Created and Performed by
Katie Burson and Beth Kayes

June to October 2019 Royal Jelly performed by Mirabai Pease and Isabella Austin.